People Meter Technology

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PEOPLE METER TECHNOLOGYArbitron Releases Miami PPM Data After Florida Lawsuit". FMQB. July 15, 2009

INTRODUCTION

In their most common incarnation, people-meters are devices that attach to

each television set in a sample household. They record when the set is on

and what is being watched. They also feature a set-top box with a series of lights that serve as prompts and person-specific buttons that allow

individuals to indicate they are watching. To encourage viewers to “login,” the lights flash when the set is turned on, when the channel is changed,or when there is no button-pushing activity for an extended period of time.

Most people meters offer respondents a remote hand-held device so theycan press their button without walking to the set. The data collected by the

people-meters are retrieved via telephone lines on a daily basis, combined

with other previously gathered viewer information (e.g.,age, gender, etc.),

and turned into audience ratings that can be accessed the next day.People-meter data are typically gathered from a panel of television-

equipped households selected through some form of probability sampling.

As such they suffer from the same kinds of sampling and nonresponseerrors that occur in all survey research (Sampling,Random; Sampling,

Nonrandom). People-meter measurement, however, presents some novelproblems and solutions.

Button-pushing requires the active participation of audience members. It

is, therefore, a relatively obtrusive form of measurement that is subject to

respondent fatigue. Further, some types of viewers, like children, are not

particularly vigilant button-pushers. Ratings firms combat these problems

by training respondents and offering various incentives for cooperation.They will also limit how long a household can be in the ratings panel – in

the US, it is a maximum of two years. Ideally, more “passive”technologies would identify who within the household was watching. Tothat end, ratings firms have experimented with facial recognition software,

or having respondents wear small “tags” that would signal if they are inthe room.Newer video technologies that offer an abundance of choice and

the ability to time-shift consumption present the challenge of accurately

identifying what is being watched. The problem is addressed in one of two

ways.Ideally, the companies that provide media content will embed inaudible

codes or “watermarks” into the audio portion of their offerings.

Detecting these codes allows meters to record what content and deliveryplatform is being used, as well as calculate the extent of time-shifting.

Media that are not encoded can still be identified by capturing an audio“signature” that is later matched to a library of material.

HISTORY



The original concept for the PPM can be traced back to a

brainstorming session at Arbitron in November 1988.[citation needed ] At

that time, concerns over the forthcoming move from analog video to

high-definition digital television had engineers concerned that the

technology currently in use would become obsolete overnight.Drawing upon his experience in testing labs, Dr. Gerald Cohen

proposed embedding an identifying signal in the audio and later

decoding it. The rationale was simple. Dr. Cohen argued that audio

was less likely to undergo as drastic a change in content and

technology as would video, hence any technology developed would

not likely to become obsolete in a few years.

The concept was presented to the company at that time and was

also written up in a short concept document. A preliminary

investigation was undertaken, however, but the technology wasnever given serious consideration. The concept was written off and

forgotten as Arbitron had bigger fish to fry in its competition with the

Nielsen Company for television ratings. Arbitron lost that battle and

went back to its core business – radio ratings.

Dr. Cohen’s idea lay dormant until 1992 when Drs. Richard Schlunt

and Patrick Nunally approached Arbitron. Meeting with Ronald

Kolessar, Director of Technology, Dr. Cohen and others, they

presented a new variation of the idea – selectively embed a code

into the frequency spectrum of the baseband audio stream and usedigital signal processing in a small wearable device to recover the

embedded code buried in what a person watches or listens to. [citation

needed ]

Convinced that that concept could be achieved, Mr. Kolessar

obtained approval from Arbitron's management to undertake a fast-

track effort to determine feasibility. Lacking the internal expertise to

do so – additional outside help from Martin Marietta was sought.

Facing cutbacks in the defense industry, Martin Marietta agreed totake on commercial business even to the point of signing away all

rights to the technology they were to develop. Engineers at Martin

Marietta decided that the best approach was to employ the principle

of psychoacoustics to mask the embedded code signal, an

approach described in U.S. Patent No. 5,450,490.

Now a full-fledged project having management support,

development by engineers at Arbitron focused on improving the

encoding and detection methodology and miniaturization into a



hand-held device. Additional capabilities such as motion detection

were added later on.

In 2008, EE Times as part of their Great Minds, Great Ideas Project

profiled Mr. Kolessar as the "Inventor of the Portable People Meter".

PORTABLE PEOPLE-METERSOther forms of portable electronic media, like radio, are ever morecommonplace.

The diary-based measures that are still the principal means for

measuring radio audiences, however, are problematic, and

conventional people-meters that are anchored to a particular location

are ill-suited to the task. This has given rise to newer, portable

people-meters

(PPM) that are carried by respondents and are capable of capturingexposure to multiple sources of media.

At this writing, the most fully developed PPM technology is being

deployed by the

Arbitron Company, the major supplier of radio ratings in the US. It

is being introduced in major American markets, and is being used inseveral countries, either as the “currency” for buying and selling

media, or as a supplement to more conventional metering.

Arbitron’s PPM requires a sample of respondents to carry or wear a

pager-sized device that is capable of detecting inaudible watermarks

embedded in the audio signal of either radio or television. Thus, the

PPM can capture information on exposure to either or both media.Portable media using earphones can be measured using special

adapters. In the future, it might also be possible to measure

proximity to print media by seeding them with tiny RFID chips, or

outdoor advertising by building in some sort of GPS technology.

At the end of the day, respondents are instructed to place their PPM

in a docking station that recharges the meter and retrieves the data.

PPMs are designed with motion-detectors to determine whether they

are being carried. If they are not, the ratings company can contact

the respondent.

Though they are less expensive and more easily deployed thatconventional hard-wired people-meters, PPM technology is not

cheap. Having PPMs accomplish both radio an television

measurement would greatly improve the economics of deployment.

However,in the US Nielsen has shown qualified interest, in part,

because optimizing the device for



Peoplemeter Installation Change to TVM-5®Technology

There are many types of peoplemeter or electronic survey equipments. Ascellular phone, peoplemeter is also adjusted to local TV environment in

each country. But it has to have technical standard which is certifiedinternationally by international institution, such as ARM Group that alsoissues GGTAM.

Types of peoplemeter are for analog environment, digital environment, off-line data collection through modules (an equipment to record viewing data)and on-line data collection through data transmission, either by fix linetelephone or GSM.

With high penetration of cellular phone in Indonesia, peoplemeter with on-line GSM method (series TVM-5®) will replace peoplemeter with off-linemethod. While off-line technology required seven to 10 days in datacollecting and delivery, on-line technology enable faster TV audience data

availability, even overnight (Daily Rating or Overnight TAM Data).

TVM5® represents the latest generation of TVM series. It containsfeatures to measure all known TV platforms and devices. It is based on thenon-intrusive concept and emphasizing the need for reliability inmeasuring both analogue and digital broadcasts TV audiences. TVM5® incorporates a number of updated features to minimize panel membertampering, further simplify the installation process and a full off-site remotemanagement system including remote on-line checks, configuration andprogramming.

Each of household members is associated to specific buttons in thepeoplemeter handset (example: button 1 for Father, button 2 for Mother,

etc). Household members are required to press the handset button whilewatching TV and vice versa, turn off the meter once they finishedwatching. Peoplemeter will automatically record household panel memberviewing and identify the channel they watch. Then the viewing data istransferred through GSM transmission unit to AGBNielsen office in Jakartaevery day to be processed automatically.

Peoplemeter Set: TVM5®

A people meter is a audience measurement tool used to measure the

viewing habits of TV and cable audiences.

The People Meter is a 'box', about the size of a paperback book. The

box is hooked up to each television set and is accompanied by a

remote control unit. Each family member in a sample household is

assigned a personal 'viewing button'. It identifies each household

member's age and sex. If the TV is turned on and the viewer doesn't

identify themselves, the meter flashes to remind them. Additional



buttons on the People Meter enable guests to participate in the

sample by recording their age, sex and viewing status into the

system.

The device, known as a 'frequency-based meter', was invented by aBritish company called Audits of Great Britain (AGB). The

successor company to AGB is TNS, which is active in 34 countries

around the globe.

Originally, these meters identified the frequency of the channels -

VHF or UHF - watched on the viewer's TV set. This system became

obsolete when Direct to Home (DTH) satellite dish became popular

and viewers started to get their own satellite decoders. In addition,

this system doesn't measure digital broadcasts.

Before the People Meter advances, Nielsen used the diary method,

which consisted of viewers physically recording the shows they

watched. However, there were setbacks with the system. Lower-

rated stations claimed the diary method was inaccurate and biased.

They argued that because they had lower ratings, those who

depended on memory for the diary method the may only remember

to track their favorite shows. Stations also argued that if it wasn’t

low ratings that skewed the diary method, it might also be the newvariety of channels for viewers to choose from. Viewers may not be

able to record everything they watch and there is no way of

discovering the truth. Finally in 1986, Nielsen developed an

electronic meter, People Meter, to solve the problem. The People

Meter is an electronic method of television measurement that moved

from active and diary-based to passive and meter-monitored. The

meter also recorded real time simultaneously viewing, reducing

memory bias.

Because Audits of Great Britain (AGB) had just entered the U.S.

market executing similar technology, Nielsen felt the need to

compete. Nielson made a substantial technological advance before

network-era norms entered crisis with transition to the national

People Meter sample in 1987. Although People Meters presented

substantial improvements over the previous system, the alteration in

audience measurement caused significant controversy. The method

change costs stations whose audience had been over estimated.The

end of the multi-channel transition was in large part due to the

continuous changes in technology and distribution. Nielsen was at a

disadvantage as their measuring techniques required burdensome

adjustments. Luckily for Nielsen, the advances in advertising

strategies, distribution windows, and ways people were using

television made industry sectors interested in data about viewing

behavior.

Along with changing their counting methods, Nielsen also started

emphasizing their sample in 2003 in reaction to census shifts and

requests from some industry sectors. Nielsen’s automated Local

People Meter (LPM) technology was introduced in New York and

Los Angeles. The LPM improved the method of measurement from



active and diary-based to passive and meter-monitored. More

importantly, the LPM provides accurate measurements to particular

local markets, verse a nation wide sample from the People meter.

While diary-based surveys concentrated on quarterly “sweeps”

periods, the industry has been pushed towards year-round

measurement, due to the automated LPM system.

Today there are new systems such as the portable people meter and

'Picture Matching' measuring the viewing habits of TV audiences. In

an effort to improve the accuracy of radio ratings, Arbitron and

Nielsen Media Research are testing a "portable people meter" (PPM)

for radio. This new device to be clipped to an individual's clothing.

Radio stations encode an inaudible, unique signal as part of their

broadcasts. The PPM "hears" this signal and records the station and

the time spent listening. Such a device requires far less effort on the

part of respondents.

REFERENCES

[1]"Arbitron Releases Miami PPM Data After Florida Lawsuit". FMQB .

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People Meter Technology